Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Wedding Invitations

Sometimes I get distracted from doing concept art, and I experiment with other crafty-esque hobbies. Take this for instance.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to help design and construct the wedding invitations for my friends Esther and Ryan for their wedding. Some of you may actually recognize them as the couple sitting next to me, on my bizarre moment on Conan O' Brian almost a year ago. Esther was the one wearing the Rikkuma (I hope I spelled that right) costume sitting next to me, and Ryan next to her. When she told me she wanted to have a Super Mario Bros (the 8 bit original specifically) themed wedding, I got super excited and asked her if I could help out in any way. Luckily, I was able to contribute and it turned out to be a very fun experience.

The Wedding Invitations

We used orange envelopes because it was one of the official wedding colors, were Orange, Grey and Black. I guess we were kinda lucky that everything fell into place.

You then remove the cartridge from the "Jacket". We used a fibrous cardstock that mimicked the original sleeves pretty well. Too bad the textures in this photo doesn't show it.

The front of the "cartridge". In case you were wondering what all that gibberish in the front is, let me explain it. The Tanouye used in place of the Nintendo logo is the maiden name for the bride. And Watkins in the Official Watkins Seal is the last name of the groom. 10-08-11 is the date the couple set for the wedding. Just in case you didn't notices 10-08 was decided because it was wordplay on the bride's last name. Awwww... =p

And then you open it up...

These are the 3 cards that we packed in each cartridge. One of them is actually a postcard that you'd mail in.

I sorta took these photos out of order so, bear with me. The Third card (The Star) is the Wedding Registry card.

The second card is the Flower Card / Directions to the wedding.

The first card (the mushroom) is the RSVP postcard that you're supposed to mail in. I was later told that some folks contacted the bride and RSVPed through phone or email so they could keep their invites intact. Haha.

The Inside

The backside of the cartridge

I apologize for the bad pun. I had to figure out something to put back here, so I sorta wrote this out in a delirious state. We made these invitations (only two people doing about 80 of these) over the course of a 18 hour day. There weren't any hi res source images of the rear of the cartridge so I whipped this up in photoshop real quick.

Wedding Favors

3 days before the wedding, we came up with this as the thing we place on the tables for the guests to take home if they'd like. Luckily, this time we had a little bit more man power for the construction of these.

When you open it up...

There's a card on the inside.

Thank you in 4 different languages, representing the different ethnic groups represented by the the bride (1/2 Japanese, 1/2 Korean) and the groom (1/2 Caucasian 1/2 Mexican). Ideally I would have made all the type in 8 bit font, but we sorta ran out of time on this one...

We had to figure out how to make sure the guests stuck with what they ordered in the RSVP, since the dishes are limited. I guess the concern was, that when the servers bring out the dishes (there were actually 5 different kinds), they would get mixed up, and people would end up eating something they didn't ordered. So this was the solution we came up with to kindly remind the guests what they ordered.

This is what you'd see if you chose beef.

And this is what you'd see if you chose the Vegetarian dish. We sorta cheated here, since the source vegetable sprites we found were actually 16 bit. But we were running out of time! There were 3 other dishes (fish, chicken and kids meal). Unfortunately I didn't grab any after the wedding was over.

If you don't get why we put coins in the box, you must not have ever played Super Mario.

The Seating Chart

(sorry I stole the photo from the wedding photographer)

Their wedding ended up being one of the most beautiful and fun weddings I've ever attended. Sadly they are moving away from socal to New York. Congratulations to the both of them! Wish you guys the best!

EDIT 1:

The invitations made it into Nintendo Power! Wow. A childhood dream fulfilled!

EDIT:

I've since received an enormous amount of requests to recreate these invitations. Thank you guys for the honor of asking me to do your wedding invitations. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that I can fulfill your requests for several reasons. First of all, I'm unfortunately not a professional wedding invitation maker nor a graphic designer. My usual job is that of a concept artist. To to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing most of the time. These were sorta experimental, and more of a one time deal. The costs of doing these, especially at the amount of invitations people are looking for may be too high when you factor in material costs (I don't get them at wholesale prices) and the amount of labor that is put into it. I was able to make these at a lowered cost because a) free labor, and b) I had access to lower printing rates when I was a student. Now I'd have to use something like Kinko's which would raise the costs of these significantly. Also these aren't pre-produced, and stored away at a warehouse so they can't be purchased pre-made. I'd have to make several trips to purchase supplies from places that aren't that close to me. Also, I cannot in good conscience (and legally) sell you guys the file because I don't own the copyright to Mario and Nintendo. I also can't send you the file as the bride and groom has requested that this invitation be their own unique thing, and not be repeated as is. Although I would love to help each and everyone out for their wedding, I can't do it for the price most people are looking for, which is usually close to free =p. However, what I can do is congratulate all the wonderful couples who getting married, and thank them for even considering me to handle a task like this.

This is awesome! I wonder if I decided to do this kind of theme for my wedding. We have like about 1300 invitations. (in my home country, it's common thing to invite lots of people)Thanks for the sharing.

Nice invitations Larry! I saw this and immediately raged because our invitations (for the wedding on October 16) are made out of emptied cartridges that open like a book. I'll post a link here when we have pictures! Great minds think alike.

I was wondering if you would make these for other people,and what you would charge, our wedding will be in a year or two from now and would love these!!! We are planning on a mario themed or retro gaming in general themed reception. :)

Hi guys! And wow! Thanks for the encouraging comments. Esp you Dilanka! You sexy beast. Just kidding guys, I went to school with that dude.

I don't know if I can legally charge someone to do these, since these are copyrighted material. =/. I can say this... they aren't really easy to do, and are rather time consuming, but I guess if anyone is interested, they can email me, and I can discuss it with them. Then again... I've seen people make a ton of wedding mario cakes without Nintendo's consent. Congrats to all of you who are going go get married! I hope your weddings turn out nice!

The wedding some of you may actually recognize them as the couple sitting next to me, on my wedding invitations on wedding almost a year ago.I got super excited and asked her if I could help out in any way.

It's a nice innovative idea of posted pictures.congrats to the wedding couples.I hope this helpful for the wedding planning couples.If any couples difficult in wedding planning,you may use the wedding planner app iPad and ease the wedding tension.

Here posting all invitation are superb. Wedding invitation is sent to know everyone. The invitations is have more varieties and different cards. the wedding planner choose best one, and invite all friends and family.

What an amazing piece of art! Wow, i never thought wedding invitations could really be that cool! Way the go you guys! thanks for posting this one, and why don't you check this wedding invitations too. I think they're also kinda cool.

This Blog site is so amazing! It's no longer automatically true that the bride's family is paying for everything, or that you'll have a full reception afterward. So even if you are having a traditional, formal event, the standard wedding invitation wording needs to be adapted for your event.

And yes, finally, the Princess is now in Watkins castle! Wow... this is the ultimate effort from you, Larry! Now I'm yearning to Google a Legend of Zelda-themed wedding! Do you think you can pull one off?

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Before wedding the one of the main thing is sending the invitation to the relatives. So designing the Budget wedding invitations is much necessary. As the design of this wedding invitation is very nice.

I am such a Super Mario nerd...how did you make these? Are you commissioned to do them? I'm still single, but if I ever do get married or have the money for the most awesome birthday ever, I'd LOVE to have these invites!

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This is amazing! Our wedding colors are orange and grey too! I think I want something simple for my save-the-dates, but for my boyfriend's bachelor party, this would definitely be appreciated. It would be more affordable too, because he's just having a few guys over. Even for our save-the-dates, though, I'm liking the square envelope. Thanks for your creativity and imagination!

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